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Can You Really Erase Wrinkles On Contact?

The Truth About Instant Wrinkle Reduction Claims

You may have recently seen some skincare videos and claims floating around social media that allege to deliver “instant rejuvenation” to your skin, making skin “instantly ageless” by erasing deep on contact. However, the side effects of this short-term, quick fix product may have you thinking twice before handing over your credit card. Today we’re going to give you the truth about those creams and serums that claim to erase deep wrinkles and fine lines on contact.

About every two years another new product with a supposed new breakthrough ingredient comes out claiming to “erase wrinkles on contact.” But, once again, when you look deeper at the formulation, you see that the product is actually reinvention based upon an ingredient called Argireline by a Barcelona-based company, an old favorite of the beauty-hype companies.

“Argireline is in at least a hundred products on the market. And although it is not new in the industry, there is very little safety data on it,” said Dr. Hal Simeroth, Chief Technical Officer and Founder of Stemology. “Acetyl hexapeptide-3 (aka Argireline) is a synthetic, anti-wrinkle cosmetic ingredient. This peptide is a fragment of SNAP-25, a substrate of Botulinum toxin (Botox). It is an ingredient that has been around a long time (about 15 years) and is hardly a new scientific development.”

Argireline claims to cause a semi-paralysis of facial muscles and inhibit Catecholamine release. Catecholamines are compounds in the body that serve as neurotransmitters such as epinephrine, adrenaline, and dopamine. Epinephrine is a substance that prepares the body to handle emergencies such as cold, fatigue, and shock. A deficiency of dopamine in the brain is responsible for the symptoms of Parkinson’s.

Would we want to use a cosmetic that inhibits or reduces these important glandular secretions? In a word, no.

There are a lot of unanswered questions associated with Argireline. What if you accidentally overuse the product, or just intentionally apply too much? What is excessive for your personal skin type and make up? The answers are not clear. There are reports of long-time use causing some loss of muscular control. And beyond the safety issue, the efficacy claims regarding Argireline tend to be highly exaggerated. All the excitement is created by outrageous claims rather than real scientific data.

“It should be known that this ingredient delivers a short-term benefit only; the effects only last for a few hours, then you have to apply it again. To be useful at all it needs to be applied in concentrations of 5 -10%, which is a very high percentage in cosmetic formulations,” said Dr. Simeroth.

Additionally, test data shows results that are rather average in efficacy.

“For long-term benefit, a user is much better off using a collagen building product as opposed to something that is purely cosmetic and superficial, like Argireline,” explained Dr. Simeroth. “A good collagen building serum, or a good smoothing serum, will provide a meaningful and lasting benefit rather than a short-term, potentially harmful effect.”

Alternatively there is a natural botanical extract named Secale Cereale. At a 3% concentration it works in a similar way to Argireline, has better clinical test results and is a much safer alternative. It can also be found in Stemology’s Cell Revive Smoothing Serum and Cell Revive Eye Serum Complete.

Our thoughts? Play it safe and check the science when buying products that claim to erase wrinkles on contact. Check performance claims thoroughly and is a product doesn’t have third party claims to stand behind, skip it. Most of the time when it seems too good to be true, it usually is!